Weather in Port Douglas in December

Shoulder season. December sits in between. You will get good days and you will lose some. You should expect rain on 17 days of the month, which is more days wet than dry.

December ranks 10 of 12 — near the bottom of Port Douglas's year. August is the month that works, and the swing between the two is 40 points, which is a different holiday rather than a slightly better one.

Rain on 17 days, 5 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Pack for 30.4 °C days and 25.6 °C nights; the spread matters more here than any single number.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: 19 days top 30 °C — hot spells arrive, but they break; the day barely swings — 4.7 °C between the overnight low and the afternoon high. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest December day reached 35.2 °C and the coldest night fell to 23.1 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 93 mm — roughly 50% of the month's rain in one day.

December is moderately variable: 14 mm in the driest year against 478 mm in the wettest, around an average of 185 mm. Roughly two Decembers in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 8.4 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 78%, high enough to notice on the warm days without dominating them.

How December sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 29.5 °C in November, 30.4 here, 29.6 in January. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much. Rain is the thing that moves: January brings 8 days more of it, so the earlier half of a flexible trip is the safer half.

Daylight in December

Port Douglas sits close enough to the equator that daylight barely moves all year — 13.1 hours in December, against a range of just 1.9 hours across the whole calendar. Sunrise and sunset land at roughly the same time whenever you come.

Sea temperature

The sea sits at about 28.5 °C in December — warm enough that the water offers no relief from the heat. The sea peaks at 29.2 °C in February and bottoms out at 24.7 °C — water lags the air by a month or two, which is why the best swimming often comes after the best weather.

How busy it gets

Off season. The genuine off season: cheapest by a distance, with the caveat that some tours and restaurants close entirely.

Crowd levels are estimated from climate desirability and school-holiday calendars, not from visitor numbers.

December in Port Douglas versus nearby

If Port Douglas is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Cairns is the weaker option in December — 2.2 °C warmer, the same number of rain days. Townsville is close enough to be a coin toss — 3.1 °C warmer, 7 days less rain.

So: December is a compromise. August is 39 points better and is what Port Douglas is actually like at its best — worth moving the trip for if that is possible, and worth adjusting expectations for if it is not.

Every month in Port Douglas

See all twelve months in Port Douglas, or where else to go in December.